Carlsen's 70-board simul in Hamburg

2/22/2016 – Germany's very prestigious news weekly, Die Zeit, have just chalked
up seventy years of publication. As part of the anniversary celebration
they invited the World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen to play a seventy-board
simultaneous exhibition. A number of prominenten opponents took part, and
a number of fairly strong players. The event took six hour and ended in a veritable massacre.

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It was shortly after the end of the Second World War that the first edition
of Die Zeit was published in Hamburg – to be precise on 21
February 1946 – above the masthead of the very first issue. Since
then the paper has been published weekly, on Thursdays, for seventy years.
It is considered to be highbrow, with a centrist to liberal orientation,
publishing dossiers, essays, third-party articles and excerpts of lectures
of different authors – long and detailed articles published in a large
physical paper format. It has a circulation of around half a million copies,
with an estimated readership of slightly above two million.

Arriving at the venue (in the Harbour area
of Hamburg) an hour early we were
surprised to see a long queue of people waiting for entry to watch the simul

Inside most of the opponents of the World Champion
were ready and receiving instructions from the organiser

When the event was announced Die Zeit had asked chess players to apply
for a place in the simul, with no upper limit for playing strength specified.
Very soon 1400 applications were received – most opponents were chosen
by lot. Four places were reserved for special guests, and two for young
talents: Jana Schneider (see her game below) and Jeremy Hommer.

For the players – like nine-year-old
Jeremy Hommer – there was sustenance for the long battle ahead

Here we have some pre-game consultation –
between the former German Finance Minister
and candidate for Chancellory, Peer
Steinbrück, and another young Carlsen opponent

At last the general public was let in and quickly
filled the entire hall, after which...

... the World Champion arrives and is introduced
by senior ZEIT reporter Ulrich Stock

Ulrich is a chess (and music) aficionado whom we tend to meet in places
like Chennai and Sochi rather than in the newspaper offices in Hamburg,
located just a few miles from the ChessBase office. In his introduction
to the simultaneous exhibition he asked Carlsen if it would be okay to interrupt
the simul at some stage to get his opinion on how things were going. Magnus
reply: "Sure, but please make it brief – we don't want to break
the concentration of my opponents, who are hard at work." Trademark
Carlsen humour.

And then the simul was under way, one against
seventy, quite a daunting task, you'll agree

Magnus at work – in the background you
can spot another prominent opponent...

Yes, famous football star and coach Felix
Magath, also a great chess fan

The Carlsen simul lasted six hours, and the final result was (hold on to
your hat): 68-2, sixty-seven wins for the World Champion, two draws and
one loss. One of the draws is especially interesting, but we will save it
for a later article. Here is the only loss Magnus suffered.

What every opponent got: a Play Magnus chess
set, signed by Magnus Carlsen

Football with Magnus

Here's a question for you: what is the best way to prepare for a marathon
70-player simultaneous exhibition? Football after breakfast! Magnus called
André Schulz at ChessBase and asked him if he could join in a football
session on the morning before the simul.

Magnus in action in a football game including
a number of chess players

He's pretty good at this game, and certainly
always has his heart in it

Keeper on Team Magnus was his second, Peter
Heine Nielsen,
who happened to be in Hamburg to record a new DVD

Frederic FriedelEditor-in-Chief of the ChessBase News Page. Studied Philosophy and Linguistics at the University of Hamburg and Oxford, graduating with a thesis on speech act theory and moral language. He started a university career but switched to science journalism, producing documentaries for German TV. In 1986 he co-founded ChessBase.

See also

11/27/2017 – Magnus Carlsen added his name to his esteemed predecessors on a very special Fritz 15 DVD on the eve of the Fritz 16 release. We've finally picked the winner to our "Ask Magnus" Q&A webcast contest. Plus our next very special on Tuesday will be Wesley So!

See also

11/8/2017 – Want to ask Magnus Carlsen a question? The World Champion will be our guest today on a special live webcast, where he'll take questions and have a look at one of his best games from his most recent tournament in the Isle of Man. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Video

Former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik liked to play the French and once described it as a 'difficult and dangerous opening'. But in this 60 minutes video IM Andrew Martin suggests an aggressive and little-used idea of the renowned attacking player GM Viktor Kupreichik to counter the French: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Be3!?. Andrew Martin uses the games of Kupreichik to show why this line could catch many French aficionados unprepared and is very dangerous for Black. Attacking players will love this line and the unusual complications that it promotes.

Enjoy the best moments of recent top tournaments (World Cup, Isle of Man Open) with analysis of top players. In addition you'll get lots of training material. For example 10 new suggestions for your opening repertoire.